A new policy for deciding who gets health care coverage through the federal/state Medicaid program is being sold on the idea that forcing a few layabouts off the list will help the rest of us by saving taxpayers money.

That idea is false.

False. Hurtful to the most vulnerable among us. Expensive to taxpayers, to health care providers and to patients who aren’t on Medicaid.

And classist, ableist and just a little bit racist.

And every member of Utah’s all-Republican congressional delegation last summer voted for it, as part of what President Trump called his “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”

To the extent that our senators and representatives care what Utahns think, we should all be letting them know that this policy is not acceptable.

Utah’s Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Workforce Services are working through the bureaucratic maze of implementing new federal rules that impose stricter work and reporting requirements for those who receive their health care coverage through Medicaid.

Thus will Utah taxpayers be ponying up more money for inspectors and audits to ensure that those receiving the coverage are working, in school or qualify for a health-related exemption.

At the same time, all of us will be facing higher health care costs as those who arrive uninsured at emergency rooms or charity clinics leave legitimate providers holding the bag for unpaid care.

Those added costs will be passed along to providers, insurance carriers, employer-provided plans and individuals — to, that is, everyone. Or, in the case of smaller and more rural providers, the added burden will force clinics, hospitals and nursing homes to shut down, depriving whole communities of easy access to health care.

All of this is justified by the idea that those who aren’t working enough hours a month should not have access to health care. As is so often the case with every Trump/MAGA policy, the cruelty is the point. Efficiency certainly doesn’t enter into it.

There are legitimate concerns that too much Medicaid spending goes to scam artists. But such fraud benefits crooked providers, not needy patients, and it is they, not the working poor, who should be on the watch list.

State officials estimate at least 40,000 Utahns will lose their coverage starting in 2027. In the vast majority of cases it won’t be because they just don’t feel like getting a job. It will be because they won’t be able to negotiate the necessary bureaucracy to prove that they are working, or in school, or caring for children, or in such frail medical condition that working is not an option. And having to prove it over and over.

Meanwhile, local officials, including those who work with the homeless and law enforcement, are rightly upset that the federal work requirements specifically exclude those who are homeless from receiving a waiver — even though Utah and some other states have said they should be eligible for one.

The feds should accede to Utah’s wishes. Otherwise, it will only be more difficult for unhoused people to turn their situation around.

All of this is a perfect mesh with the Trumpish culture of cruelty to brown and Black people. With innocent people feeling ICE breathing down their necks, even if they are here legally, combining anxiety-produced health problems with fear of visiting a doctor.

While much of the burden will, indeed, fall on minority groups, an awful lot of lily-white, native-born Utahns, including those who have health insurance, will suffer from this policy as well.

Every major religion, particularly those Christian faiths that dominate Utah, teaches that it is the duty of every society to heal the sick.

Everyone who truly believes that should be after our elected representatives, at the state and federal level, to honor that charge.

Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.